Gunpowder Creek, KY

Gauge Information

River Description

Gunpowder Creek is located in Boone County and flows out of Florence, KY (and the Northern Kentucky/Greater Cincinnati Airport) west through a Boy Scout camp (Camp Ernst), and on to the Ohio River.

This creek is a nice little class II run with some easy surf and play spots. It averages about 40-50 feet wide, and the banks are tree-lined with lots of big sycamore trees. It is very pretty, and very little sign of civilization can be seen anywhere along the run. Camp Ernst on river right will probably be the only buildings you see. But there are some things to consider before running this creek.

Even though this is only a class II run, good boat control is essential, due to the abundance of strainers and islands along the way. Also, for the first 3 miles, the run is class II-II+, with several decent little surfing opportunities. Then the next 4 miles really calm down to long pools, class I shoals, and the occasional small class II with small front surfing waves. But, islands everywhere make those miles dangerous. You can't just float this creek -- you have to be attentive!

This is a very polluted creek. Recently TV reporters did a story about a young woman from the Sierra Club who was doing a study on the creek. She had discovered that the creek was dead. The Glycol used for de-icing planes has killed off most signs of life in this creek. Also, the put-in is at the sewage treatment station. Although that (and the glycol) surely have destroyed this creek, when we ran it, no one in our group smelled any sewage. (Does glycol smell? Surely it all ran off in the spring.)